Another Racist Nativist

It's about 5 minutes into this 6-minute video clip, but like Pat Buchanan before him, Bill O'Reilly here makes an explicitly racist appeal to limit immigration, as he laments that open borders would break down the "white, Christian, male power structure" in America. John McCain (being interviewed, and defending the immigration bill), to his credit, sort of changes the subject before saying he agrees, making it not really clear how much of O'Reilly's argument he agrees with.

Personally I think it's a wonderful thing that people with origins all around the world find the American system attractive enough to want to come here. What's important in immigration is not preserving the whiteness of the power structure here, but preserving the ideals of democracy that America is based upon. When legal channels are open to immigrants, there can be mechanisms in place to teach them the essential foundations of America and better assimilate them into society. Under the immigration status quo, in which millions of illegal immigrants exist as a permanent underclass, these mechanisms do not exist and they are unable to participate fully in society.